Justice Brent E. Dickson

Under the statute governing the wrongful death of an unmarried adult with no dependents, the amount recoverable for reasonable
medical and hospital expenses necessitated by the alleged wrongful conduct is the total amount ultimately accepted after contractual
arrangements with an insurer, Medicare, or Medicaid, and not the total of the charges billed, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled
today.

The Indiana Supreme Court held today that appellate courts have the authority to increase a sentence on appeal, but the state
can't initiate or cross-appeal review of the sentence and can't ask for a greater sentence if the defendant doesn't
initiate an appeal.

The Indiana Supreme Court was split in its ruling that a trial court properly instructed a jury regarding a habitual offender
finding, with the dissenters arguing the court's instruction was inadequate as compared to the defendant's proposed
jury instruction.